Twilight of the Soul
by Phantom-XIII
Summary: After Naruto dies, he learns from a Shinigami named Ichijin Haru about a life after death. What decisions will Naruto be faced with? Will he accept his fate or fight the inevitability of death? NaruHina romance later.


_**Prologue **_

_Two demonic figures face off, the rumbling of a great waterfall in the background. One is cloaked in demonic red chakra, his right hand holding an orb of condensed spiraling energy. His features look animalistic and fierce, and his eyes were that of a demon's. The other has large wings and distorted features, looking more demon than human. His Sharingan Eyes full of rage; he holds a sphere of black lightning._

_Suddenly, the boy with wings jumped towards the other, screaming the name of his target, "__**NARUTO!**__" His opponent leaped at him with an enormous burst of chakra enhanced speed, calling out the name, "__**SASUKE!**__" A gigantic sphere of energy formed around the two, seconds later resulting in a violent explosion._

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Chapter 1: **A Shinigami's Touch**

Naruto woke up, rubbing his eyes to clear the blurriness. _Where am I?_ he thought to himself. _One minute I was fighting Sasuke, the and now I'm waking up from a nap._

He looked around to gage his surroundings. He found himself to be floating twenty-or-so feet above what would appear to be his own corpse. _Wait a minute, my corpse... _he thought puzzling to himself. He looked down to find a broken chain bolted to his chest.

After a few seconds of thought, he panicked. "If that's my body down there, then I must be dead!" he exclaimed. "This is all Sasuke's fault. All I did was try to help that jerk and he put a freakin' hole in my chest!"

He began rubbing his head profusely, muttering worry full things to himself. He was like this for a few minutes when a girl walked up to him, a very strange act seeing as they were in midair. "Hey there!" she said to him loud enough to be a yell.

Naruto jumped upon seeing her. She looked like a normal seventeen years old girl. She wore black ceremonial robes, and had a sheathed katana stuck into her sash. Her hair was short and light blue, and her eyes the same shade. She had a cute face that looked happy and free spirited. "What's up, little boy?" she said with a smile. "The name's Haru. Ichijin Haru. Nice to meet ya."

Naruto, still very surprised to see this girl, responded "N-Naruto. My name's Uzumaki Naruto." he said, shaking her hand with a befuddled expression. "A-am, I, you know-"

"Yep!" she interrupted. Smiling a pleasant and happy smile, she said, "You're definitely dead." Naruto's jaw was agape. This was it. He died. Game over. "Now," she started, "I'm going to send you to a place called the Soul Society. It's basically heaven." She started to unsheathe her katana, saying "This process is called a Soul Burial, it will let you pass on to-"

"NO FUCKING WAY!" Naruto yelled in anger. "I made a promise to Sakura that I'd bring Sasuke back to the village, and I never go back on my word. I'm not going to leave this world without finishing what I swore I'd do, because that's my Ninja Way!" He glared at her with a defiant look in his eyes, an aura of determination surrounding him.

Haru looked at him with a stern look and started saying, "Now look here, boy, I don't make the rules, I just enfor-" she was interrupted by a demonic roar. Naruto looked around for the source, but to no avail. He looked to see that Haru had taken a battle stance, and began to build up chakra into her sword.

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_Damn_, Haru thought to herself, _why a hollow, now of all times?_ She searched for its reitsu signal, but couldn't find it. Just as she began to take out her cell phone to find its location, she felt a spike of reitsu above her. Before she had time to respond, a boar-like hollow rammed into her, sending her falling to the ground. As she lay in the small crater by the side of the waterfall, she thought, _I can't believe I let a hollow like _that _sneak up on me. I was careless_.

Before she could start to get up, the hollow landed on top of her. As she coughed up blood, the hollow spoke, its fetid breath nauseating her, _"__**Heh heh heh, so what does it feel like, Shinigami? Has the felling of impending doom spread throughout your entire body? I'm sure you'll make a wonderful snack!**__" _It opened its mouth, its jaws large enough to bite her in half.

Just before it closed its teeth on her, a voice rang out from above them. "**Rasengan!**" A blonde haired boy ran a sphere of spiraling reitsu through the hollow. As the hollow dissolved, it said _**"What the!? A human soul? How did a regular soul kill me!?"**_Looking over at Haru, Naruto gave a fox-like grin and said "Guess you owe me now, huh?" _This kid_, she thought. _Just who is he?_

Haru stood up, flinching in pain as she grabbed at her right arm. "Hey, are you okay?" Naruto said, running up to her. _I guess it's broken_,she thought to herself. _I'll have to get that looked at_.

"Just a broken arm," she replied, "nothing to freak out over."

"So," Naruto began excitedly, "to pay me back will you bring revive me?"

"Sorry, kid," Haru said with a serious look on her face, "but no can do. I would be in serious trouble if I did that. It's just not worth my while."

Frustration flashed across Naruto's face. "But if I didn't save you, you would have died. I think I deserve something for that. And besides, if I ran away right now, you wouldn't be able to catch up to me in your state."

Haru sighed in defeat. The kid had a point; she was beat up pretty badly. "Listen," she said with a tone of loss, "what I'm about to do is highly illegal by the laws we Shinigami follow, but I can bring you back to life." Naruto's face changed into a bright smile at hearing this. Before he could respond, though, Haru continued with her speech. "I can do this by forcibly unlocking your dormant Shinigami powers. This will have a great drain on my reitsu, that which you humans call chakra. Your spiritual body will change, and it will be easier to move around in spirit form." She paused here. "Do you understand?"

"All I understand is that I won't be dead anymore," Naruto said with a dumb smile on his face, "so can you do it? Can you? Can you?"

"I told you" Haru said with an annoyed expression on her face, "That this is highly illegal. I'll do it, but..." a sly grin crept over her face that sent a chill running through Naruto's spine, "you have to become my servant."

"No way," Naruto responded immediately. "I don't have time to be your servant if I'm going to find Sasuke."

"If I do this for you," proclaimed Haru, "I'll have to hide from the Soul Society as a criminal, and I'd need a servant with me to make things more comfortable, and besides" she said, her sly grin returning, "If I don't bring you back to life, you can't find that Sasuke person."

Naruto looked shocked. He obviously lost. "Fine," Naruto said with a defeated tone, "I'll become your friggin' servant. Now make me alive again."

"Okay then," she said with a happy looking smile. "Now hold still." she approached Naruto, getting very close. She slowly stuck her hand into Naruto's chest, it sinking in to him as though he were intangible. Suddenly a white light enveloped Naruto, spreading out into a sphere that surrounded Haru and the surrounding area.

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Kakashi was rushing to aide Naruto when he sensed a huge spike in chakra from an unfamiliar source at Valleys End. He quickly activated his sharingan and saw that a sphere of white chakra had formed around the area, nearly blinding him when he looked at it directly. He put away his eye and focused chakra into his feet to rush to the source of this immense energy.

_Naruto_, he thought to himself, _you better not be dead when I find you._

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**Author's Note:** Hello there readers. This is my first fanfiction ever, and I'm quite nervous. I am a longstanding fan of both _Bleach_ and _Naruto_, and felt that a crossover between the two could be awesome if done right. I am eager for feedback and suggestions, and hope you will thoroughly enjoy it. –Phantom-XIII


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